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Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Free Photo Restoration & Date Old Photographs => Topic started by: Mem B on Tuesday 23 December 08 03:28 GMT (UK)
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I have resized this with Irfanview to take it below 1000 pixels so hope it is OK. As you can see the original had seen better days. It was an ambrotype on glass and was scanned at 600dpi.
I am learning fast about the intricacies of posting so hope I have done it right this time! If not please tell me. My original problem was with the width as when I tried cropping I couldn't get it below 1900pixels without ruining the photo.
Many thanks for your help.
Mem B
The building to the right is "The Sportsman's Arms" hotel and on the left Cleghorn's Alma store. The ownership of the Humpy in the foreground is unknown!!
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Hi Mem B, welcome to Rootschat!
An intriguing photo, what's the story on this place? Where is it?
Also, at what resolution is the photo scanned? Because it's only 60 kb and you can have up to 500 kb on this site...I'm thinking it's been scanned at low resolution and a higher-res scan would make more detail available for restoration...
But, I'm not a restorer so I'll let them have the floor :D
Cheers,
China
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Another great pic Mem b,
being the Cleghorn family I imagine this is in Oz.
Not sure where Rocky River is? Please do tell.
will try and have a play with this one later but higher resolution would be better, please.
Hi China ;)
Margaret
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One to get the ball rolling :)
Victoria
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Hi all :)
I believe Rocky River was one of the gold diggings up near Armidale in NSW. I have some rellies who went up there in the 1860s to try making their fortunes, and a friend of mine's gx? grandmother used to run a gin shack up there! I'll have to find out more about her - maybe that's her hut in the foreground! ;D
Fantastic picture, Mem B :)
Prue
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Great job Victoria.
Here is my attempt, think I cleaned up the roofs of the homes too good :D
Margaret
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Thanks Margaret,
I know what you mean. I was half way through and thought, it's the middle of the bush, if anything I should have made them dirtier lol
Victoria
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Figured this one could do with a little colour :)
Victoria
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Thankyou all for your help. I am sorry that somehow this topic has unravelled into two threads, I am not sure if it was my computer hiccuping or my slow , peculiar Broadband having a blink at the wrong moment. Apparently there are problems downstream.
For those of you who are interested, Rocky River is in the New England area of New South Wales. It is near Uralla, a small town south of Armidale. It was the site of an early Gold strike when people arrived from all over hoping to make a fortune. My GGrandfather emigrated from Scotland in1853 nd after a spell in Victoria and Tasmania travelled to Rocky River where he and his younger brother opened a store in 1856 . The store prospered and in 1859 his sweetheart also emigrated from Edinburgh. They married in Sydney on her arrival and returned to the Rocky where a daughter was born later in the year. In the photo my GGrandfather is waving his hat in front of the store and my GGrandmother is standing on the verandah at the left hand end of the building, with her little daughter. They later moved to Armidale where they are buried in the Presbyterian Cemetery.
Mem B
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Hi Mem B :)
I asked my friend about his old g-g-granny who had the gin shack up at Rocky River diggings: her namewas Mary Ann Shaw/Faulkner/Grant/McGregor/Austin (she had several husbands!).
My own relatives were the Haynes brothers, a couple of them went out to the diggings from Uralla. NOt sure if they made a fortune or not - it certainly hasn't come anywhere near me if they did!
Your photo is lovely, a real treasure :)
Prue
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Thank you for posting the photo and to the restorers. My family were in Rocky River by 1857. My gg grandmother, Mary Ann Wareham (nee Line) died there in 1857 and was buried in Uralla. She died from dysentery. Her son-in-law, John Noble, was listed as a storekeeper of Rocky River on her death certificate. He was the informant.
The family had migrated in 1856 on the "Bangalore" under Caroline Chisholm's Family Migration Scheme. Mary Ann and husband , George Wareham, had 11 children. After George's death in 1851, Mary Ann migrated with some of her adult children.
Our families must have known one another. Regards, Gazania
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Hi all
Not that it needs it by the look of the results, but here is a larger, higher resolution version posted for Mem @ 600dpi. (The original was scanned at 1600dpi) :o :o :o :o
mudge
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and a quick straighten and restoration
mudge
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That's very clever, Mudge, how you turned some messy discolouration into clouds.
What a great pic.
Cheers,
China
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Thanks china :) :)
And here's a sepia version
mudge
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Hey Prue,
Would love to get in touch with your friend - my ggg grandmother was also Mary Ann Shaw/Faulkner/Grant/McGregor/Austin. (I'm related from her first marriage to Isaac Faulkner.) It would be great if that was a photo of her shanty!!
According to "They Came From Thunderbolt Country" here's some info on Mary Ann Shaw:
Granny Austin's life on the goldfield was long and colourful. It was said that Thunderbolt often stopped at her wine shanty for a drink, hitching his horse to the post in front of her establishment. She made lots of money, but never used a till. All the notes were placed immediately into her bodice and shaken out of her dress at night. She was a very tough lady, and once beat a recalcitrant youth all the way up the main street of Uralla. Her way of life had no doubt made her tough. Presumed to have Gypsy blood, she arrived in Australia hardly more than a bride. Carrying her first babe in her arms she walked behind, and rode on, bullock wagons from Sydney to Muswellbrook, a journey of more than two hundred miles on today's surface, and it must have been really rugged in 1849.
Look forward to hearing from you. Great work with the photograph everyone!!
Michelle
PS Here's a photo of her in her later years ....
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Hi Michelle,
Fantastic! I'll send you a PM with my email address, and details of my friend. How fabulous! I'm sure he'll be chuffed to hear from you - I'll pass the info and photo on to him now.
Cheers! :D
Prue
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I am so glad this photo elicited so many responses from people with connections to Rocky River. With regards to Mary Ann Shaw of the many husbands, I have found that her Faulkner descendants are connected, through marriage, with the Young family who owned "Iona" which is the subject of another of my requests. They are not in my direct line but quite close. Isn't the world a small place!
Mem B
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That Mary Ann really got around, didn't she! ;D ;D ;D
And thanks to Michelle, my friend James and I now know that my Haynes and his Faulkner families intermarried (not our direct lines though) so we're very distantly related to each other. ;D ;D ;D That had us both in stitches for a while :)
Thanks Mem, for posting such a great photo :D :D :D
Prue
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Hi,
Where did you find that great photo. I live in Armidale and am helping out a friend who is also a decendent of Isaac then William Faukner. Would love to know the friend's details also Prue. William married a Charlotte Williams from Victoria/SA. Cheers.
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Hi
I am a descendant of Mary Ann Shaw/ Charles Grant.
I am interested in the photo of Cleghorns store in Rocky River.
When was it taken and what Cleghorn owned/operated it?
Alexander Gwyder Cleghorn married Margaret Grant in 1897 Uralla.
Many Thanks
P.S. It is a Great photo and I would be interested in how it was artifically coloured.
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Also Prue, do you know the connection to the Aboriginal Faulkner's in Uralla? I know and Aboriginal man who can help me out but was wondering if you knew anything. My friend is particularly interested in the Aboriginal ancestry she believes may be in her line.
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Sorry, not au fait with the Aboriginal families in that area but I do work at AIATSIS and there is a Family History Unit here that helps to research Aboriginal ancestry:
http://www.aiatsis.gov.au/fhu/about.html
There is a name search resource available through that page.
They have a very long waiting list just now, so another resource that would be worth trying is LinkUp (http://www.linkupnsw.org.au/).
It may also be worth contacting the Armidale and Region Aboriginal Cultural Centre and Keeping Place, to see if they have any ideas for finding out more info:
http://www.acckp.com.au/
Cheers
Prue
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Hi Prue,
I have been to AIATSIS when I was researching the Armidale Assimilation group who helped with lobbying for housing for the Indigenous people who were living on the old town dump in 1956. It is a great facility. Thanks for the other ideas. Link up has helped another lady i have helped find records for. Ended up finding her gggrandmother's marriage record just in the parish registers. Stated mother as Aboriginal which was pretty exciting.
I have only just started looking at this family though and will drop into our regional archives as a starting point. Oh, and visit my Faukner contact. The story of the first man to find gold rings some bells for some reason... I wonder if he has told me that before.
Regards, C
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Hi my name is Bob Faulkner and the first Faulkners to arrive in Australia was Isaac Faulkner, his wife Mary Ann (Shaw) and son Thomas. They arrived aboard the vessel Tory 4th April 1849 from Plymouth.
Isaac died after falling down a mine shaft in Uralla.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/18689199
More on Granny Austin also.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/107566679?searchTerm=%22isaac%20faulkner%22%20uralla&searchLimits=
It's believed Isaac was the first to discover gold at the Rocky River gold fields but he was never acknowledged because of the amount of gold he found. Others later found more and were mentioned in government announcements.
Granny Austin married Isaac in Lutterworth England 7th November, 1847 and after his death she married Charles Walter Grant, James W McGregor and John Austin.
She is buried in Uralla on top of he first husband Isaac Faulkner.
Hope that helps some.
(http://i936.photobucket.com/albums/ad209/scamanda/MaryAnnShaw_zps6d1f7844.jpg) (http://s936.photobucket.com/user/scamanda/media/MaryAnnShaw_zps6d1f7844.jpg.html)